I did the circle skirts first since they were the easiest. The top layer is a casa collection organza with little sparkles and clear drops on it and underneath is broadcloth because I am a classy broad. The corset is boned, I used an online tutorial for a corset that doesn't cover the bust; I made my own pattern following the directions on there. Using the 'donut hole' excess of my overskirt, I made the ruffly bit at the top of the corset and sewed it in at the same time as the red panel. After that, I made the boning channels out of bias tape and stitched them in. Then I did the red ribbons that go down the seams, but my boning was too wide, so I had to sew one side and then hotglue the other. The buttbow is made out of cardboard because I wanted it to be one stiff son-of-a-gun; I sewed a "pillow-case" of broadcloth over it, and then did the same with a layer of the pretty casa. Then I stitched the two layers together in the back so they would stick together and conform tightly to the cardboard. Then I sewed on the "knot" - just a strip of fabric that goes around the middle of the bow and hides all of the ugly hand stitching. I sewed the tails of the bow onto this back piece. The hairpiece was made from a clip and three polymer balls painted gold. The microphone was made from a 4' dowel cut down to 12", and the braided parts are made from craft foam. The whole thing is hotglued together and then spray-painted gold. The earrings were bought from a seller on ebay, along with the shoes, petticoat, gloves, and thigh highs.

This corset is cursed! Every time I re-make it, it always winds up being too big. I'm probably going to rip out the back zipper and replace it with grommets so that it laces up in the back so that I don't have to keep re-fitting it.

Personal Thoughts:

When I first watched Macross Frontier, I instantly fell in love with Sheryl. When I got to the LION OP and the end of the series, I knew I had to cosplay this version. This and the LION OP Ranka Lee cosplay I made for Sam were the first costumes I ever sewed entirely by myself! Corset has been remade for 2012. Keeping one stocking thigh-high is really difficult.